A Choice
by maximumwolf
Summary: A year past since Lyra and Will had to leave each other forever. But now Will has found something strange that he had thought had been wiped out completely. Is there still hope for the two friends? Find out!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters mentioned in this story! They all belong to the one and only Philip Pullman! Thank you!**

**AN: Reviews are appreciated and this story will be updated regularly! I hope you enjoy! (Sorry this chapter is extremely short!)**

Chapter 1 The Window

Will lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling in a dream like state...like he always did when alone. Thoughts ran through his mind a thousand miles an hour: Lyra, Iorek, Serafina, his mum and again Lyra. His black t-shirt creased and tattered but neither Will nor Kirjava, his cat daemon beside him cared. Outside, he could faintly hear Mary Malone humming a love tune, her daemon twittered along with her. He tried to smile but instead a tear fell down his cheek. It had been exactly a year since Lyra and him had to separate, a year since anything fun had happened. Sometimes the sixteen-year old wondered if it would have been better to just follow his love back to her world. But Kirjava, barely awake, growled at the end of the bed at the thought. _Remember what you agreed! We must build our own republic of Heaven_! She thought to him angrily, eyes blazing with fury for the first time Will had met her.

"Okay Kirjava...But do you ever wish that there could have been another way? Another way to stop the Dust leaking through to nothingness?" Will asked, sitting up straight and placing his hand on the silky pelt of his daemon. "Yes...Yes I do dear Will. But what is done is done. And anyway Midsummer's Day is nearly upon us! You will be with Lyra then" She replied wisely, her tail flicking, reminding Will a lot of his old cat, Mottie.

The boy just sighed a long almost painful sigh before standing up. "I am going for a walk...Care to join me?" "Nah, go ahead! I rather just pig out here" chuckled Kirjava. Will smiled and walked out of the house slowly, giving Mary a quick wave before heading out towards the nearby forest. Most daemons would have had no choice but to follow their companion out that door, but Will and Lyra were different. Like the witches, they had learnt a special skill while in the Land of the Dead. It let their daemons travel far from them and so could retrieve useful information. The forest was denser than any in Oxford, the dead leaves crunched under the weight of Will's boots and the birds in the trees above took to the air in fright

A little later, Will was leaned against an ancient Oak tree, gulping down water from his canteen and admiring the beautiful landscape before him. And then...he saw it. At the corner of his eye, Will could make out the most familiar thing on the world to him. A window hovering in mid air, in it were trees and mountains like the forest he stood in, but somehow much different. His mouth dropped and the canteen fell from his hands. It couldn't be...Had the angels forgotten about this window? He shook his head over and over, blinking his eyes several times, trying to wake himself up from this strange dream. But he was _awake_.He ran over to it eagerly, examining the edges, the back of it, which was invisible. Suddenly in the other world through the window, it began to pour rain, thunder and lightening.

A traveller passed the window, oblivious to it. And Will gasped out loud, padding after the poor looking traveller was a bear! It was a daemon, which meant that this could only be one world for sure.Lyra's world!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two Lyra's World 

Lyra awoke in her room of St Sophia's boarding school for girls. She gave a sleepy yawn and looked around for her roommates, shrugging as there was no sign of them, she nudged Pan, her daemon, and he instantly woke. "Hey..Do you want to go explore this place?" Lyra grinned sheepishly, stroking Pan's pine marten fur. "I don't know...What if we get caught?" "Okay scaredie cat! How about visiting Jordan College? After all it is the weekend!" Lyra persisted, her eyes full of excitement.  
"Ah alright! But not too long! We have a test on Latin on Monday!" Pan reminded her, but the sixteen-year old took no notice and jumped out of bed, pulling on a jumper and a tartan skirt. Lyra was climbing the roofs again of Jordan College, the most favourable thing she had ever done. Her balance was like a cat to a tree or a acrobat to a rope, and Pan scampered after her, glancing down nervously now and again but seeming to enjoying himself. "When is Midsummer's Day, Pan?" Lyra asked suddenly, the thought had just popped into her head from nowhere...maybe it was because she still hadn't become close enough friends with the other girls to have forgotten about dear old Will. "In two days..." Answered Pan quietly, he was missing Kirjava and shuddered as he thought about never seeing her again. Lyra nodded and looked out across the clear blue sky. Wondering, if Will missed her as much as she missed him. Had he moved on? How was his mother? Did Kirjava ever tell him what happened when Pan and her had run off? "Pan...Do you want to go down to the woods? I heard from the gyptain kids that there is a dragon!" Lyra asked, fingers trembling with excitement. Pan, on the other hand, rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't you think the police and all would have killed it by now? If there is one..." He trailed off, gazing down at the canopy of the woods below. The leaves seemed to be waving up at him, the branches creaking and groaning from the wind and the sun shone so brightly that it made the dew on the grass glitter brilliantly. Maybe there was such magic in a place so beautiful as that? "Oh please Pan! Please? Let's just go and have a look anyways! Come 'on!" Lyra persisted, already beginning to find footholds to climb down. Pan sighed loudly and followed obediently, jumping from one roof to another with ease and Lyra gasped with pride at her daemon, she was overjoyed at the form he had chosen.

Soon they hit the ground, and quietly crept into the shadows of the woods, sending the dead leaves up into the air. Pan climbed up the trees and pounced down on Lyra's head from time to time, enjoying themselves thoroughly. As they sat down against an oak tree, just as Will had done in the world so far away, Lyra saw what he had seen...A window, inside it was an oak tree exactly like the one she was sitting against! Pan sniffed cautiously around it, making sure it wasn't a trap.  
"I-I thought the angels closed them all?" Lyra muttered, feeling the edges of the window, remembering how Will had told her how to close one so many weeks ago. "Well, there are millions of them, ya know. They can't close all of them!" Pan answered quietly.

"What-What if this one leads to-" began Lyra shakily but was interrupted by the hissing of Pan.  
"Are you crazy! We have to close it! Even if it does lead to...Will's world" he cried out, thinking of the millions of particles of Dust that were probably being sucked out of this world and into the next. "Do-do you know how to close it then?!" yelled Lyra back, hating how Pan was always right. "I don't know...Just leave it, maybe an angel will find it!" "Fine-But-" "No buts! We have to go! Come on!" Pan ordered, brushing his pelt against Lyra's leg, and darting off towards the College.

The confused Lyra gave one last glance at the window...knowing that it _had_ to be Will's World. Had he found it too? Did Kirjava give out to him too? Life just wasn't fair! She wanted to see Will's handsome face again, kiss his lips and talk about their adventures. She made a silent promise to herself that day, to check on the window every day.

Was it just a coincidence that Will had found a window that same day? Was it just a coincidence that Will and Lyra had met in Cittagaze? Or was it all something to do with Faith itself?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three The Meeting**

"Are you sure it leads to Lyra's world?" Kirjava questioned, her long bushy tail flicking back and forth nervously. "Yes! I am positive! I saw a man with a bear following after him! His daemon!" Kirjava pondered for a moment of what Will was telling her. Finally she looked back up and said "We must close it immediately...Every second another hundred particles of Dust is escaping from our world!" "We can't! Imagine it! Just one window...only one, it won't do much harm! And me and Lyra could visit each other whenever we pleased!" Will replied loudly, pacing back and forth in the bedroom that Mary had let him have. "Remember what the angel said! We must close all of them! No matter what!" Kirjava explained, knowing that this was going to be harder for Will than anything else in the world. "Okay fine..I'll close it" Will lied, his eyes fixed on his daemon's. Yes, Lyra had taught him a thing or two about lying, "I will do it tonight, but by myself...without you. Is that okay?" Kirjava nodded, narrowing her cat-eyes suspiously. "Just be careful, alright?" she growled, rubbing her face against his knuckles. With a silent sigh of relief, Will smiled and walked slowly out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Mary and her bird daemon were sitting on the sofa of the living room, Mary was flicking through the channels with the remote for the TV and made some room for Will to sit down. "Are you okay dear?" Mary asked in a motherly tone. Ever since Will's own mum had died, Mary had been like a second mother to him. "Yeah.Yeah I'm fine" Will replied, staring at the TV screen absent-mindly. "Okay, well I was wondering if you would like to go down to the park later on. Get some fresh air?" "Um...Maybe tomorrow, I have some stuff to do" Will said, avoiding her daemon's beady eyes.  
Mary smiled warmly and strolled out of the living room and into the kitchen, the smell of sausages and rashers wafted up into Will's nose.

He glanced up at the clock, two more hours until nightfall which meant two more hours until he could ever glimpse Lyra again. He couldn't let this opportunity go by so fast. He would find Lyra, even if he had to step into that window.

**Lyra's POV**  
Lyra crept out of her room, leaving Pan fast asleep on her bed. Sometimes you got to do...what you got to do! Soon enough she had entered the woods near Jordan College and searched for the window carefully. Creatures were awaking from their slumber and more than once had Lyra heard the odd growl from behind a bush. There it was, after all this time, the window still hovered above the ground, the edges of it so perfect and transparent it was hard not to mistake it. Slowly and with a deep breathe Lyra stepped closer, her hands in tight fists, her knuckles going white with nervousness. She poked her head through the window and...

**Will's POV**

Will crept through the shadows of the forest, threading carefully, trying his hardest not to crunch any of the dead leaves. After a while of endless searching, he saw it! The window standing proudly a couple of meters in the air. He sprinted over to it, completely overjoyed that it was still there, for a mere second, Will thought he glimpsed golden hair inside the window...Or maybe he was just hallucinating? Shrugging that thought off, he stepped through, gazing around, the towering trees and the leaves began to whisper anxiously as they felt a new thing enter their world. "Hello?" He whispered quietly, not expecting anyone to answer but just to hear the sound of his own voice in such an eerie place. "Will? Will! Its you! It's really you!" Screamed a voice from behind the window and Will turned around in his tracks, eyes wide with excitement and instantly he rushed over to the golden haired girl and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her dearly. Could it really be true? Was this really Lyra? She had grown so much! "How-how is this even possible?" Lyra cried into his ear, still clinging to him. Will just stood there, speechless and dumbfounded. Now what?

**Lyra's POV**

"How is Kirjava? How is your mother? And Mary? Oh, Pan is really missing Kirjava! I just can't believe this!" blabbered on Lyra, questions seemed to burst out of her mouth and she couldn't stop them. Will on the other hand, just stared happily into Lyra's eyes, nodding his head now and again and answering the few questions he could manage at a time.  
"Mother...Well she died a week after I came back" muttered Will, looking away. Lyra's eyes immediately softened like when Marisa Coulter had tended to her daughter in the cave so long ago. "I am so sorry Will.." She trailed off, patting his back sympathetically. "I can't stay, you know that right?" Will explained, changing the subject quickly.  
"But, you can visit?" "I don't know, as you said Pan was furious when he found the window and when I told Kirjava she nearly spat and me! And an angel could find this window at any moment. Its just too big of a risk...Maybe its just better if-" Will began, tears coming to his eyes but he wiped them away quickly so Lyra couldn't see them.  
"No! We can't! The moment you left me, I just couldn't forget about you Will!" Lyra cried, looking into Will's eyes with pure innocence.

"Listen Lyra, the more we talk the more Dust that leaks out of my world and yours into nothingness. Do you want that to happen all over us being able to see each other once and a while? We have to..." Will licked his lips as he said it "move on...Of course I will never ever forget you, but we still can be together on Midsummer's Day. Remember?" Lyra nodded slowly, before leaning over to Will and kissed him lovingly. "Here...I want you to have this" Lyra murmured as she sat back up against the oak tree and Will was blushing furiously at what had just happened. She pulled out a small leather pouch which she had had since she was only twelve. Carefully she opened it, Will knowing immediately what she wanted to do. The alethiometer fell into her smooth hands and she placed it in Will's, giving a weak smile. "I want you to have this...so you won't be able to forget me. I can't read it anyways." "Are you kidding? Not in a million years would I take this from you! Lyra, I will always remember you, even if I do get married and have kids, I will always!" Will said just above a whisper and tried to keep his voice from quivering.

There they stood, Will looking through the window from his world, Lyra from her world. "Goodbye Lyra, tell Iorek and Serrafina if you ever see them again that I thank them" Will insisted, holding Lyra's hand in his, trying to memorize every feature of her beautiful face. This would be the last time he saw her... "I will, and tell Mary that she is a great friend and that she will always be remembered in my world" said Lyra, smiling and wishing that someone would come along and interrupt this terrible awkward silence. And before Lyra could turn around and head back to St Sophia's Boarding School, Will kissed her, the worlds seemed to fade around both of them, it was just them. Only them and nothing else. Finally they broke apart and without another word, Will felt for the edges of the window and shut it painfully. It was done.

**I** **hope you guys are enjoying this! It still isn't over, I have one more chapter to go so hold on!**


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